I heard a gasp come from Savannah and she grabbed my hand. Unable to stop myself I looked back over my shoulder, Mason chose that moment to turn around, his eyes finding mine over the crowds. As he looked at me, my stomach rolled, and I thought I was going to be sick. He quickly removed her arms from around his neck and pushed her away, anger evident on his face. He started to make his way through the crowds towards us. “Get me out of here Savannah.” I pleaded, tears threatening to fall. She silently pulled me into the crowd, and I followed her blindly, trusting her to not let me fall, my vision blurred from the tears that were now falling down my face.
“Libby wait!!” I heard Mason shout frantically. I felt Savannah increase her pace and I stumbled behind her. “Libby, stop. Please.” His voice sounding desperate. I wanted to turn around and look at him, but I couldn’t make myself do it.
“I’m heading for the maze; we can hide in there for a bit,” Savannah told me. I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. I saw her turn and look behind me. “I think we’ve lost him for now.” She said slowing down her pace.
There was a maze of maize behind the Ferris wheel, and we slipped inside without anyone from our group seeing us. “Savannah, do you know who that girl was with Mason?” I asked her quietly as we stopped just out of view of the entrance. I wiped my eyes as I waited for her to answer me.
She sighed. “Yes, that was Amber.”
“Amber? There was a text this morning on Mason’s phone from an Amber. Do you know her?”
“Only by her reputation. She’s tried getting it on with nearly all of the men in Marble Falls, most of which have let her, according to Brody. She’s the same age as him, and they went to school together.”
“And Mason was one who didn’t say no?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Yes… but Lib, Amber is known for trying to get her claws in, I think you should speak to Mason, what you saw, there might be an innocent explanation.”
I looked at her, in disbelief. “You’re taking his side?”
“Of course not Libby, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you, the way you look at him. There is something real between the two of you, anyone can see that. All I’m saying is, save judgement until you’ve spoken to him.”
“I like him Sav, I like him a lot. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, it scares me.” I paused, my eyes dropping to the ground. “My heart broke when I found out Mia had died; I can’t go through that again. I know I’ve only known Mason a short time, but I’m falling fast… and they looked pretty cosy. He was hardly pushing her away.”
“Lib I’d give anything for Josh to look at me the way Mason looks at you. I know what you saw looked bad, I’ll be the first to admit that. But don’t throw away what you could have with Mason before you know what happened. Speak to him, please. I’ll be the first to kick his ass if he’s up to anything with that skank, believe me.” She reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, she held it up to me. “It’s on silent, but I’ve got 13 missed calls, all from Mason.” As she held it the display lit up, his name flashing across the screen.
I took in a shaky breath. “Answer it,” I told her. “I’ll speak to him. It’s not like I can ignore him all day.”
She answered the phone, telling him where we were. I could hear him, he sounded frantic. Maybe Savannah was right, and there was an innocent explanation. God, I hoped so. Savannah gave me a few minutes to pull myself together, hugging me tightly before she linked my arm and we made our way out of the maze. Mason was waiting for me by the entrance. Savannah squeezed my arm. “I’ll leave you two to it, I’ll go and find Brody.” She said disappearing into the crowd.
“Sweetheart.” Mason began, reaching for me. I took a step back, his hand dropping in front of him. “Libby, what you saw, it’s not what it looked like.”
“Tell me what it was then Mason,” I replied seemingly calm, although on the inside I was a nervous wreck waiting to hear what he would say.
“The girl you saw was Amber. We’ve been…together a few times over the past couple of months, she wanted more, I never did. After she text this morning, I went to see her.”
I gasped, dropping my eyes from his. “That’s where you were this morning” I whispered, hurt evident in my voice. “You went to her after I spent the night with you?” I felt a lump form in my throat and bit on the inside of my mouth to try and stop the tears that were building. He reached for my hand again, and this time I wasn’t quick enough to pull back.
“Yes, but to tell her that I wouldn’t be seeing her again.” He rushed out. “I knew she wouldn’t take any notice of a text, so I arranged to meet her at the coffee shop in Marble Falls.” He paused. “Look at me Libby, please.” I slowly raised my eyes to meet his. “I told her that I’d met someone and that I only wanted to be with her.”
“So, what was that?” I gestured with my hand to the other side of the fair where I’d seen her draped all over him.
He dragged his hand through his hair and sighed. “She was upset, she told me I’d led her on and that she loved me. I swear to you Libby, I never led her on. I told her the first time I took her out that I wasn’t looking for a relationship, she told me she wasn’t either. She started getting clingy a few weeks ago, so I cooled things with her, but a couple of weeks before I met you…” He trailed off, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I slept with her again, and now she’s pissed at me. What you saw was her hugging me, she caught me off guard. I’m so sorry.” He reached up and stroked my face under my eyes. “I hate that I’m the reason you’ve been crying. I never want to be the reason you cry again.” Without me realising he had somehow edged closer as we’d been talking, he was now standing right in front of me. I could feel his breath on my skin as he spoke and I closed my eyes and lowered my face, resting my forehead on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, and I felt him kiss the top of my head. We stood there, neither of us saying anything for a few minutes, my head spinning. “Say something sweetheart.” He pleaded.
I looked up into his eyes, did I listen to my head or my heart? My heart believed him, my head was telling me to run. I’d judged him wrongly before, and I wanted to believe what he’d told me. I decided that I needed to be honest with him. “Mason I really like you.” Embarrassed I dropped my eyes to the floor. “I’ve never felt like this before; it scares me how quickly I’m falling for you. I don’t want to get hurt.” I whispered, looking up at him.
“It scares me too baby, but I won’t hurt you, I promise.” He said, his eyes sincere.
“You can’t promise me that Mason.”
He paused. “I would never intentionally hurt you, Libby.”
“I guess I panicked. When I saw her all over you, I felt like someone had kicked me the stomach. It’s ridiculous I know; we’ve only known each other a week. That’s what’s so scary.”
“Lib, it’s not ridiculous, if I’d seen you in the arms of some guy, I’d have ripped his head off. I’m falling just as fast sweetheart.” He bent his head and tentatively brushed his lips against mine. “Is this okay?” He whispered against my lips. I threaded my arms around his neck, digging my fingers into his hair. I pulled his mouth to mine and kissed him hungrily, brushing my tongue against his. He moaned into my mouth and pulled me closer to him. “I’ll take that as a yes!” He smiled as he pulled away. “You owe me a ride on the Ferris wheel, come on.”
The Ferris wheel was amazing, you could see for miles, although I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the view, I was preoccupied with the gorgeous cowboy next to me. His arm was around my shoulder, and I was pulled tightly into his side, my new favourite place to be. “Mia would have loved it here,” I told him quietly. “She’d have loved you too. We never argued over men, but I’m sure I’d have had a fight on my hands if she’d met you!” I laughed. “She was man mad!” I really missed her, but I found that I was able to think about her without my chest hurting quite as much as it did.
“I would have loved to have met her sweetheart, it sounds like she was a real character. I can’t wait to hear more about her when you’re ready to tell me.”
“She was; we were complete opposites, but I loved her to pieces.” I gave him a small smile, and he pulled me tighter to him, kissing me on the forehead.
Once the ride ended Mason called Brody, and we arranged to meet everyone by the food stalls. We made our way over hand in hand, catching sight of Josh and Averi all over one another again, Savannah thankfully had her back to them, and she was talking to Jack. “Josh is such an idiot.” I heard Mason say.
“Why do you say that?” I asked him, curious as to what he meant.
“Bringing Averi with him and letting her paw him while Savannah watches. When he finally gets his head out of his ass and admits to himself that he likes her, he’s going to hate himself for hurting her like he’s doing. Unless of course it’s too late and she’s moved on with someone else, then he’ll hate himself even more!”
I turned and looked at him in amazement. “You know that Savannah likes him?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s written all over her face. He likes her too, although right now he’s got a funny way of showing it.” He said, frowning as he looked over to Josh and Averi.
“Has he told you he likes her? God, does Brody know?”
“Not in so many words but he’s hinted at it when he’s been drunk, and his reaction to her dancing with that guy in the bar last week speaks volumes.” He grinned down at me, obviously thinking about his similar behaviour at the bar. “Brody hasn’t a clue, though. I don’t know why Josh won’t tell them how he feels. I’ve tried to talk to him, but he won’t listen.”
“I hate to see Savannah hurting but they’ve got to sort it out themselves, something is obviously holding Josh back. I just wish they would talk to each other.” Mason nodded his head in agreement. “I hope they can work it out before it’s too late.”
“I see you two have worked things out. Are you okay Lib?” Jack asked as he walked over to us, the concern evident in his voice.
I looked up to Mason, who squeezed my hand. “I’m fine Jack, just a misunderstanding.”
“Good. Let’s eat I’m starving.” He exclaimed rubbing his hands together.
As if on cue my stomach rumbled. Mason laughed. “I think my girl’s hungry too!” He led me towards the stalls. Looking around, there was every sort of food you could imagine, burgers, hot dogs, jacket potatoes with various fillings, chips, and nachos. The list was endless. What did catch my eye was one stall selling cookies by the bucket full. They were filling small buckets to the brim with cookies for $10. I was definitely getting one of those to take back to the ranch!
After we had chosen a cheeseburger and chips each, we headed to sit in the picnic area behind the food stalls, the others following with their food. Savannah sat down beside me with a huff. “Urgh! If I have to watch Averi grope Josh once more, I’m going to throw up! That girl has no shame.” I gave her a sympathetic smile and squeezed her hand. “Enough about my sad excuse for a love life! Are you and Mason really okay? What happened?” She asked me in a hushed tone so that no one else could hear her.
I looked across to Mason who was chatting with Brody. “We’re okay,” I said, turning back to face her. “Amber reckons she’s in love with Mason, so she didn’t take too kindly to him telling her he’d met me. He said she was upset and hugged him, which is when I saw them.” Savannah’s eyes widened in surprise.
“She’s in love with him?”
“Apparently. Mason said they’d only been together a few times, but she’d started to get clingy so he’d cooled things with her.”
“God, she sounds like a real catch! What was he thinking?” Savannah said, rolling her eyes.
“He wasn’t thinking, but he definitely won’t be making that mistake again.” Mason breathed into my ear, kissing my neck. I shivered under his touch, he’d obviously heard my conversation with Savannah.
“Well, I hope we’ve seen the last of her,” Savannah exclaimed.
I looked at her in surprise. “You think she might cause trouble?” I asked.
“No, No Lib. I’m sure she won’t, I was just thinking out loud.”
“Don’t worry sweetheart, I made it perfectly clear I didn’t want anything to do with her. She won’t be back.” Mason said confidently. I smiled at him, hoping he was right.
After eating we spent another hour or so around the fair, I managed to persuade Mason to have a go on a couple of the faster rides with me. I took pity on him after the second ride that threw him upside down, though, as he came off looking a pale shade of green. At around 7 pm we made our way over to the rodeo arena to get some seats. The light was starting to fade, but huge floodlights lit the arena. We managed to find some seats near the front, as we sat down the announcer began running through the order of events. There was everything from calf roping, bareback horse riding and bull riding, saddle bronc riding, and barrel racing. I didn’t know what half of the events were, but I couldn’t wait to find out.
The arena was packed, and it seemed like nearly everyone had a cowboy hat on. “Where’s your hat, cowboy?” I asked Mason, grinning at him.
“I left it at home, why?” He returned my smile before leaning over to kiss me on my nose.
“Everyone here seems to have one.” I paused. “They’re hot…”
“You like my hat?” He smirked at me.
“Do you have any idea how sexy you look in it?” I asked him.
“Why don’t you tell me, baby?”
“Why don’t I show you?” I leaned over to him and snaked my arms around his neck. I lightly brushed my lips against his, pulling away to look into his eyes. I watched his eyes drop to my lips, and I pulled him closer to me, kissing him firmly, his tongue snaked into my mouth, and I let out a moan.
He pulled back, breaking the kiss. “Wow, sweetheart, I think I’ll be wearing my hat all the time if it means you kiss me like that.” He whispered against my lips. I smiled.
“I think I’d like that,” I told him. A pool of lust settled low in my stomach and I almost forgot we weren’t alone. We were interrupted by a huge cheer erupting from the crowd. The first event was starting; I forced myself to move away from him, but he kept a strong grip on my hand, rubbing his thumb lightly over the pulse point on my wrist. He must have been able to feel the effect he was having on my body, as my heart was racing under his touch.
The rodeo was incredible! My heart was in my mouth for the bareback bull riding and the saddle bronc riding. I had no idea how the riders managed to stay on, I was watching behind one hand while the other grasped Mason’s hand tightly. Every time it looked like a rider might be thrown, I squeezed his hand, and I could hear him chuckling by the side of me. I shot him a couple of dirty looks when I could bring myself to tear my eyes away from the arena, this just made him laugh more.
The next event was the calf roping, I didn’t really know what this was, but I quickly discovered that I didn’t like it! It was basically a cowboy on horseback, throwing a rope over a fleeing calf, jumping down from the horse and throwing the poor thing on the ground and tying its legs up with the rope. This was all timed, and the winner was the rider who could do it in the quickest time. It all seemed a bit cruel to me, the calf must have been terrified. “God this is brutal, the poor calf,” I said to Mason turning away from the arena. I looked along the row of seats to see that Jack looked equally horrified.
“It is pretty vicious. Do you want to go outside?” Mason asked me, concerned.
“I’m going to find the toilet; I’ll be back in a minute.”
“I’ll come with you,” Mason said starting to get up.
“Don’t be daft, I’ll be fine,” I told him putting my hand on his leg. “I’ll only be five minutes.” He nodded and kissed my hand as I passed him.
I made my way outside and around to the back of the arena where there was a line of portable toilets. I joined the small queue suddenly feeling uncomfortable, I pulled my arms tight around my body, I had the strangest feeling that I was being watched. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and I shivered, I looked around but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I was at the front of the queue, and when a toilet became free, I made for the door, glancing over my shoulder as I went. After using the facilities, I quickly washed my hands and unlocked the door, as I opened it Amber was stood in the doorway, her face like thunder. “Can I help you?” I asked her, sounding more confident than I felt.
“So, you’re Mason’s latest lay then?” She spat at me, her hands on her hips. “It won’t last you know. Me and him, we have something special, once he gets tired of you, he’ll come back to me. He always does.”
“Excuse me,” I said, ignoring her comments. “I need to get back.” I moved towards her, trying to get past but she didn’t budge, her hands firmly on her hips.
“I know that you saw him with me earlier, he was going to kiss me you know, and then you showed up.” She sneered at me. “He doesn’t want a little girl like you, he wants a real woman who knows what she’s doing.”
I’d heard enough. I pushed her out of the way, and she stumbled backward. “Stay away from Mason, he’s mine. You’re seriously deluded if you think he’d go anywhere near you again. Now if you don’t mind I need to be getting back to my boyfriend.” I walked away, my whole body shaking. I’d never confronted anyone like that before, I don’t know what had come over me.
“Watch your back little girl. I always get what I want.” She screamed after me. I saw people turning around to see what the commotion was and I lowered my head, hurrying towards the entrance of the arena.
My heart was pounding, and tears were threatening to fall as I walked into the arena. I wasn’t looking where I was going and slammed into a hard body, I felt arms around my waist, and I started to panic until my senses were overloaded by the familiar smell of Mason. “Mason.” I croaked, throwing my arms around him. He pulled me into him, hugging me tightly.
“Libby, what’s wrong? What’s happened?” He asked concerned. He pushed me away from him slightly, frantically checking me over to see if I was hurt.
“Amber.” I murmured.
“What about Amber?” He lifted my chin, so I was looking at him. “What did she do?” His voice full of anger.
I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “She was waiting for me when I came out of the toilet, she said you’d get bored of me and that you’d end up going back to her like you always do.” I saw his eyes flash with anger and he pulled me closer to him, kissing me on the head.
“Did she say anything else sweetheart?”
“Erm, no… not really…” I trailed off biting on my bottom lip.
“Tell me, Libby.” He demanded, leaning back so he could see my face.
I sighed. “She just said that you were going to kiss her earlier, before I showed up, and… and that you wouldn’t want a little girl like me, that you’d want a woman who knew what she was doing.” I saw his jaw clench in anger. “She told me to watch my back, and that she always gets what she wants.”
“God, that bitch is crazy. I’m so sorry sweetheart. Did she touch you?” I knew he was angry, but his eyes softened as they looked at me.
“No. I’m fine,” I whispered.
“I won’t have anyone speaking to my girl like that. I’m going to take you back to Jack and Brody, where I know you’re safe, then I’m going to find her and tell her to stay the hell away from us.” He took my hand and started pulling me towards our seats.
“No Mason!” I pulled back on his arm. He stopped, turning to look at me. “Please don’t, can we just forget about her,” I begged him.
He sighed. “Okay sweetheart, if that’s what you want, we can forget about her for tonight, but I will be speaking to her, and soon.” He paused and lifted my chin so I was looking into his eyes. “Nothing she said is true baby, you know that right?” I nodded my head. “I’m crazy about you Lib.”
I smiled up at him. “I’m crazy about you too,” I whispered, going up on my tip toes to kiss him. It wasn’t long before the kiss turned heated. Mason pulled away and rested his forehead on mine.
“Stay with me tonight?” He asked.
I bit down on my bottom lip. I wasn’t ready to sleep with him; would he be expecting that if I said yes? As if reading my mind, he whispered. “I’m not expecting you to do anything you’re not ready to do Lib. If you’d rather not, I understand.” He moved back to see my face.
“No, I want to.” I rushed out, not wanting him to think I didn’t want to be with him. “I’m just not ready to…” I trailed off, looking down at my feet.
“I know baby; I would never make you do anything that you’re not comfortable with.” He reassured me, reaching up and tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Come on, let’s head home, things are winding down here now anyway.”
Mason called Brody, and we met everyone by the minivan. Savannah could tell that something was wrong, but I shook my head at her indicating that I didn’t want to talk about it. I would tell her what had happened, but I didn’t want everyone to know, especially Jack, he would only be angry. I was too busy thinking about what Amber had said to me to worry about the journey home. I sat in the front again with Mason, who held my hand the whole way. I was uneasy on the way back to the ranch, the more I thought about the confrontation with Amber the more I thought that today wouldn’t be the last we heard from her.